[tawk] Pronunciation Key | 1. | to communicate or exchange ideas, information, etc., by speaking: to talk about poetry. |
| 2. | to consult or confer: Talk with your adviser. |
| 3. | to spread a rumor or tell a confidence; gossip. |
| 4. | to chatter or prate. |
| 5. | to employ speech; perform the act of speaking: to talk very softly; to talk into a microphone. |
| 6. | to deliver a speech, lecture, etc.: The professor talked on the uses of comedy in the tragedies of Shakespeare. |
| 7. | to give or reveal confidential or incriminating information: After a long interrogation, the spy finally talked. |
| 8. | to communicate ideas by means other than speech, as by writing, signs, or signals. |
| 9. | Computers. to transmit data, as between computers or between a computer and a terminal. |
| 10. | to make sounds imitative or suggestive of speech. |
| 11. | to express in words; utter: to talk sense. |
| 12. | to use (a specified language or idiom) in speaking or conversing: They talk French together for practice. |
| 13. | to discuss: to talk politics. |
| 14. | Informal. (used only in progressive tenses) to focus on; signify or mean; talk about: This isn't a question of a few hundred dollars—we're talking serious money. |
| 15. | to bring, put, drive, influence, etc., by talk: to talk a person to sleep; to talk a person into doing something. |
| 16. | the act of talking; speech; conversation, esp. of a familiar or informal kind. |
| 17. | an informal speech or lecture. |
| 18. | a conference or negotiating session: peace talks. |
| 19. | report or rumor; gossip: There is a lot of talk going around about her. |
| 20. | a subject or occasion of talking, esp. of gossip: Your wild escapades are the talk of the neighborhood. |
| 21. | mere empty speech: That's just a lot of talk. |
| 22. | a way of talking: a halting, lisping talk. |
| 23. | language, dialect, or lingo. |
| 24. | signs or sounds imitative or suggestive of speech, as the noise made by loose parts in a mechanism. |
| 25. | talk around, to bring (someone) over to one's way of thinking; persuade: She sounded adamant over the phone, but I may still be able to talk her around. |
| 26. | talk at,
|
| 27. | talk away, to spend or consume (time) in talking: We talked away the tedious hours in the hospital. |
| 28. | talk back, to reply to a command, request, etc., in a rude or disrespectful manner: Her father never allowed them to talk back. |
| 29. | talk down,
|
| 30. | talk down to, to speak condescendingly to; patronize: Children dislike adults who talk down to them. |
| 31. | talk of, to debate as a possibility; discuss: The two companies have been talking of a merger. |
| 32. | talk out,
|
| 33. | talk over,
|
| 34. | talk up,
|
| 35. | talk big, Informal. to speak boastingly; brag: He always talked big, but never amounted to anything. |
| 36. | talk someone's head or ear off, to bore or weary someone by excessive talk; talk incessantly: All I wanted was a chance to read my book, but my seatmate talked my ear off. |
| 37. | talk to death,
|
] —Related forms
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
| talk
(tôk) Pronunciation Key
v. talked, talk·ing, talks v. tr.
v. intr.
n.
Phrasal Verb(s): talk around
To address orally with no regard for or interest in a reaction or response. talk back
Idiom(s): talk big Informal To brag. Idiom(s): talk sense To speak rationally and coherently. [Middle English talken; see del-2 in Indo-European roots.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
talk (v.)
talk (n.)
| talk | |
noun | |
| 1. | an exchange of ideas via conversation; "let's have more work and less talk around here" |
| 2. | discussion; ('talk about' is a less formal alternative for 'discussion of'); "his poetry contains much talk about love and anger" |
| 3. | the act of giving a talk to an audience; "I attended an interesting talk on local history" |
| 4. | a speech that is open to the public; "he attended a lecture on telecommunications" [syn: lecture] |
| 5. | idle gossip or rumor; "there has been talk about you lately" |
verb | |
| 1. | exchange thoughts; talk with; "We often talk business"; "Actions talk louder than words" |
| 2. | express in speech; "She talks a lot of nonsense"; "This depressed patient does not verbalize" |
| 3. | use language; "the baby talks already"; "the prisoner won't speak"; "they speak a strange dialect" [syn: speak] |
| 4. | reveal information; "If you don't oblige me, I'll talk!"; "The former employee spilled all the details" [syn: spill] |
| 5. | divulge confidential information or secrets; "Be careful--his secretary talks" [ant: keep one's mouth shut] |
| 6. | deliver a lecture or talk; "She will talk at Rutgers next week"; "Did you ever lecture at Harvard?" [syn: lecture] |
talk
In addition to the idioms beginning with talk, also see all talk; dirty joke (talk dirty); double talk; heart to heart (talk); look who's talking; money talks; now you're talking; small talk; straight talk; sweet talk.
Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
talk chat, tool, networking, messaging
A Unix program and protocol supporting conversation between two or more users who may be logged into the same computer or different computers on a network. Variants include ntalk, ytalk, and ports or emulators of these programs for other platforms.
Unix has the talk program and protocol and its variants xtalk and ytalk for the X Window System; VMS has phone; Windows for Workgroups has chat. ITS also has a talk system. These split the screen into separate areas for each user.
Unix's write command can also be used, though it does not attempt to separate input and output on the screen.
Users of such systems are said to be in talk mode which has many conventional abbreviations and idioms. Most of these survived into chat jargon, but many fell out of common use with the migration of user prattle from talk-like systems to chat systems in the early 1990s. These disused talk-specific forms include:
"BYE?" - are you ready to close the conversation? This is the standard way to end a talk-mode conversation; the other person types "BYE" to confirm, or else continues the conversation.
"JAM"/"MIN" - just a minute
"O" - "over" (I have stopped talking). Also "/" as in x/y - x over y, or two newlines (the latter being the most common).
"OO" - "over and out" - end of conversation.
"\" - Greek lambda.
"R U THERE?" - are you there?
"SEC" - wait a second.
"/\/\/" - laughter. But on a MUD, this usually means "earthquake fault".
See also talk bomb.
(1998-01-25)
Talk
Talk\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Talked; p. pr. & vb. n. Talking.] [Cf. LG. talk talk, gabble, Prov. G. talken to speak indistinctly; or OD. tolken to interpret, MHG. tolkan to interpret, to tell, to speak indistinctly, Dan. tolke to interpret, Sw. tolka, Icel. t?lka to interpret, t?lkr an interpreter, Lith. tulkas an interpreter, tulkanti, tulk[=o]ti, to interpret, Russ. tolkovate to interpret, to talk about; or perhaps fr. OE. talien to speak (see Tale, v. i. & n.).]1. To utter words; esp., to converse familiarly; to speak, as in familiar discourse, when two or more persons interchange thoughts. I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following, but I will not eat with you. --Shak. 2. To confer; to reason; to consult. Let me talk with thee of thy judgments. --Jer. xii. 1. 3. To prate; to speak impertinently. [Colloq.] To talk of, to relate; to tell; to give an account of; as, authors talk of the wonderful remains of Palmyra. "The natural histories of Switzerland talk much of the fall of these rocks, and the great damage done." --Addison. To talk to, to advise or exhort, or to reprove gently; as, I will talk to my son respecting his conduct. [Colloq.]Talk
Talk\, v. t. 1. To speak freely; to use for conversing or communicating; as, to talk French. 2. To deliver in talking; to speak; to utter; to make a subject of conversation; as, to talk nonsense; to talk politics. 3. To consume or spend in talking; -- often followed by away; as, to talk away an evening. 4. To cause to be or become by talking. "They would talk themselves mad." --Shak. To talk over. (a) To talk about; to have conference respecting; to deliberate upon; to discuss; as, to talk over a matter or plan. (b) To change the mind or opinion of by talking; to convince; as, to talk over an opponent.Talk
Talk\, n. 1. The act of talking; especially, familiar converse; mutual discourse; that which is uttered, especially in familiar conversation, or the mutual converse of two or more. In various talk the instructive hours they passed. --Pope. Their talk, when it was not made up of nautical phrases, was too commonly made up of oaths and curses. --Macaulay. 2. Report; rumor; as, to hear talk of war. I hear a talk up and down of raising our money. --Locke. 3. Subject of discourse; as, his achievment is the talk of the town. Syn: Conversation; colloquy; discourse; chat; dialogue; conference; communication. See Conversation.| TAlk total alkalinity |
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Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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